Skinning RIGS!

Want to start skinning on site next year rather then hauling my catch in the quad till i get back to the barn where I have my skinning gear. I plan on making one for the hitch on my truck as well as one for my quad. K heres where my question is...I see guys with the winch skinning machines and I have a winch on the front of my quad....well what if i install a hitch reciever just under my winch and build a skinning rig to utilize my winch on the quad some how? I would probly have to end up leaving it in the truck but if i catch as many yotes as I am planning on catching on my line it might be nice to have....this is more of a project to tinker with this summer more then anything...If you guys have any thought ideas or pictures of your skinng rigs I would love to see them. I am sure you guys who catch an number of cats skin them shortly after catching them so no need to carry and real weight back to the truck but any input would be great!! Thanks.

Do you have any trees in your trapping area?? If so use them instead of making something else you have to haul around? It quick and easy and you don't have to haul a bunch of gear?

Some areas have trees and some don't. Pretty far and inbetween in most areas. The trees we do have a big cedar trees which have limbs that are many much higher. In most spots I would really have to look for a skinning tree. But if I do have one that is easy accessed on my line I would use it.

Well then I would set one up for your truck and do it there. My friend will load his quad then hook up the chains to the back of the quad and skin it from there. It works good for him with no hauling extra stuff??

mercer has a choke chain attached to the rear of his bed, skins right on the tailgate with it

Ya i like that idea but he also says he does not skin his yotes from there and I also use my truck for my business and it can get grease and oil in the bed sometimes and thats the last thing i want to get on my fur.

When a cat or any animal is fresh dead, it is much easier and quicker to skin them out. I can skin a cat or coyote (durning the season when I'm in practice) in about 5 to 10 mins. When they get cold and stiff, it takes me 15 or 20 mins. longer (beaver and badger not included in this as they can take even longer at times).

Daylight is a big factor when running a trapline, and if you need all the daylight you can get to run traps, then the only real alternative is to take animals with you so you can do them where you have the light to get-r- done right. I've taken to carrying a 6' piece of parachute cord with loops on each end. I can throw a loop around a hind leg, then throw the cord over a limb or on a high fence post, then attach the other loop to the opposite foot. Now the skinning begins.

I've always toyed with the idea of a telescoping skinning pole that attaches to the receiver hitch of the pickup or fourwheeler, but as Bucksnbows said above, why carry the extra weight and gear if you don't have to.

I believe this is a great topic for further discussion and I'm waiting to read other posts and their ideas.

I found it easier to skin on site. In the areas where there where no trees, then I carried the animal to the truck and skinned it when I found a tree.

It is very easy to make a power skinner that will slip into the receiver hitch of the pickup. I use a lawn mower battery to power the ones that I have made and they will skin more coyotes on one charge than you can catch in a week. The lawn mower battery is light weight and doesn't take up much room in the pickup. I have made both flow up and telescoping skinners, but I have found that using a short piece of 550 cord I can get by with a lot shorter skinning pole. It does make a really big difference to skin while the animals are still warm. Also you don't have to haul off a lot of skinned carcasses each day.

All this is so true bill1306. My problem is that I also gland out my animals, save the bobcat meat to make into bait and that takes a little time. As for myself, I bring all animals home to skin. I can take my time skinning, glanding them out and don't mind packing the bodies off and back out to the trap line the next day. Besides, I'm hoping to teach the wife how to use a fleshing knife and beam and I will just skin and let her flesh and stretch the next day while I'm on the line. She's a rancher's daughter and used to getting her hands dirty. I would really be interested to see a picture of your power skinning setup using the lawnmower battery though if you don't mind sharing it.

BILL thats what i am talking about and thinking...if you have pictures please post.

I still have one out and set it up in one of my buildings that I can take couple of pictures. The nice thing about having a power skinner that is set up for the receiver hitch on the pickup, you can also have receiver hitch bracket set up in a building and move it in there and skin inside when you are running close to home. There are times that it just isn't possible for me to skink at home. Some of the lines that I do run take me a long way from my house and I only make it home every two or three days, depending on what my work schedule is. I have made several power skinners over the last few years and I use the same 12 volt wench on each one. The only big difference is the length of the pole and the thickness of the 2 inch square tubing. The lighter material you use the better off you are. The pole doesn’t have to be made out of very heavy materials.

Great info Bill thanks. What brand of winch are you using? And cant wait to see the pics.

I only use cheap ones. I try and catch them on sale at Harbor Freight. You can buy a 2000 lb wench for $49 or $59 when they are on sale. I’m not sure how many years one of them will last, my original one is still working and it has seen a heck of a lot of animals over the years. The switch will wear out long before the wench will. I purchased a foot control switch from Granger and that works very well. This summer I’ll be making a new power skinner for my Toyota pickup and it will only be 6 ft tall. You can get by with a lot shorter pole than you think you can, by changing the way that you skin. I skin the coyotes or bobcats down past their front shoulders and then use a piece of parachute cord (550 cords) to wrap around the fur and then I invert the animal and hold the head upward by using the cord around the hide and then skin out the head.
There are two big advantages to doing it this way. The first advantage is that you don’t need the tall power skinner pole. The second really big advantage to doing it this way, is when you are skinning the head out and you cut the ear butts off, the blood will run down the inside of the hide making the fur bloody. Doing it this way will keep the fur clean and you don’t have to work extra to clean up a bloody skin. For years I have skinned all of my foxes, cats and coyotes this way and I sure wouldn’t go back to doing it any other way.

Sounds like a good method. Do you have a photo of the set up?

Here is a picture of the lower part of the power skinner. You can see the motor, battery and the hide clamps on it.




Here is a view looking down at it from above.
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With the clamps removed. They just pull out for ease of moving it around and storage.

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Here is another angle of it with the clamps removed from the stinger.

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The wheel at the top of the skinner. This is a 3" wheel off of a garage door.

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Finally the gamble that I use on the cable to hang the animal on.

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Close up of the clamps that I use.

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Nice set up. I can see how it would work darn good. Thanks for posting the pictures.

nice set up. i like it, i see my next project after i aquire some more cages, LOL

Thats great bill Thank you very much for posting the pictures!!

That is to awesome,thanks for add tips

Bill1306 Thank you for posting the pic's. Looks like i will be busy this summer building this appahootis and stopping that dang arthritis pain in the thumbs . After 34 yrs as a tinner and welder/fabricator you have woke me up to how to make life more comfortable during trapping season. I will have to say i am humbled that i did not draw this up myself .. Thank you again for sharing. I'm thinkin now that i should bust out the Heli arc i have some 1 3/4" alum heavy wall square tube so i could adapt this to the quad if i had to....Hmm gotta stop thinkin its bed time.
Those Habor freight 1 ton winches are fairly tuff i mounted one on a car hauler trailer last year for a friend i thru a snatch block to double the line pull and it's amazing how well it loads that trailer i just used a deep cycle truck battery to handle the extended pull time not bad for a 49 dollar winch.

Awesome Idea

Wish I had welding skills, but never had much exposure or experience welding. A friend of mine was the welder and I ran the cutting torch and grinder. We made a great team, but we live 900 miles apart now. I have a Harbor Freight Store in Twin Falls, and the store manager is an old boss of my wife's. Have to pay him a visit.

Great topic. I skin mostly on my tailgate with the hind feet held solidly with rope loops attached to the sides of the bed. Works good. But I'm getting shoulder problems. And the coyotes (especially cold ones) are getting tough for me. This looks like my solution. Thanks for the description and the photos.

It sounds like a great skinning method too. But I have a question about how you use the cord "around the fur" when you invert it to skin the head. Please describe how the animal and "the cord around the fur" is rigged to the skinner when you invert it to skin the head. Thanks.

Good question trapper76 .. I'm not sure how Bill1306 does it but my method would be to insert a tennis ball ( a rock would work just make sure it's smooth) into the fur side them double the hide over and use a slip loop thru an eye in the end of your rope tied below the stop ( tennis ball ) and i see he has a hook in the center of his gramble to hook an eye loop on that would be in the other end of your rope. And clamping the feet in the vise grip tongs add tension and go to whittlin .... just sayin

Now i must caution you that on occasion in the extremely distant past i have been not right.. : )

The cord it just used to hold the hide on the gamble so you can skin out the neck and the head. Anyone that has done very much skinning knows how much the animals will bleed back down the inside of the case when you cut the ear butts. This just keeps the fur clean and free from all of the blood. I only do this on coyotes, cats and foxes.

Take about a three foot piece of cord and tie both ends together and then start skinning the animal until after you have passed the front legs. At that time I take the cord and wrap it around the hide about at the front legs and pass the end of the knot through the loop of the cord to secure the hide with the cord. Then hang the cord at the knot on the gamble and release the legs from the gamble and continue to skin the animal. If it would have been earlier in the year I could have taken some pictures of skinning, but now it is too late. At first it feels a little strange skinning the head out with the body down, but you get used to it very quickly.

I know for years I have skinned without a power skinner, but because of shoulders and arthritis I only use the power skinner to do most of the skinning. It sure makes life a lot easier.

How about the front legs, does anyone cut the front feet off before they get to them? I learned this from my old man. We just keep a saw with our skinning stuff. Cut the front legs off before I even start skinning the animal and then when I do get to them I just stick an old knife sharpener or a stake whatever I have at the time through the armpit and they pull out a lot easier. I do this on my yotes as well I like to put the fleshing beam up through the leg when fleshing and them after I am done with fleshing them I cut the excess of the leg off at the joint and when I put them up I push the remainder of the leg inside and pin the hole closed so there are to front legs on my yotes. Anyone else do this? A guy by the name of Randy Stoeberl does his yotes and fox this way and has gotten be best handled at the Fallon sale a couple of times so I started doing mine this way.

I wait until after I have skinned the front legs down on cats and fox before I cut the skin off at the wrist. On coyotes, I cut the hide around the front leg at the elbow joint before I start skinning. Cutting the feet off before I skin the animals on cats will cause the fur to get bloody, most of the time and I try and keep the fur as clean as I can.

I see what you are saying I have only skinned 2 cats that that way, but I didn't notice any blood from cutting the foot off but that makes sense. Thanks again bill.

I cut the front feet off first too. Never had an issue with that? Great skinning machine for sure! Nice pics and great that you share!!